Erik Larson has written four New York Times bestsellers. His most recent is his portrait of the American ambassador and his family in Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, which remained on the list for 35 weeks. His account of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, including that of a ruthless serial killer, The Devil in the White City, was on the New York Times hardcover and paperback lists for a combined total of over three years—it also won the Edgar Award for nonfiction crime writing and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His previous books, Thunderstruck and Isaac’s Storm, also became bestsellers. Among his other books are Lethal Passage and The Naked Consumer. The New York Times Book Review has said, “Larson is a marvelous writer…superb at creating characters with a few short strokes." Larson was also a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and a contributing writer for Time magazine and he has written for The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The New Yorker among other publications. (strongstuff)… (more)

Erik Larson is the bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award–winning The Devil in the White City. He lives in Seattle with his wife, three daughters, and a dog named Molly. (added from Random House)… (more)

Erik Larson is the bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award–winning The Devil in the White City. He lives in Seattle with his wife, three daughters, and a dog named Molly. (added from Random House)… (more)

Erik Larson is the bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award–winning The Devil in the White City. He lives in Seattle with his wife, three daughters, and a dog named Molly. (added from Random House)… (more)

This is a ticketed event! Tickets are available online only, $28 for a book/ticket combo, or $5 for loose tickets, Eventbrite fees apply.

Larson (In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America) once again demonstrates his expert researching skills and writing abilities, this time shedding light on nagging questions about the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915.

"...Most fascinating is his explanation of the intricacy of sailing, submerging and maneuvering a U-boat. Gaining position to fire a torpedo that has only a 60 percent chance of exploding belies the number of ships sunk. Throughout the voyage, many omens predicted disaster, especially the publication of a German warning the morning of sailing.

The British Admiralty had broken the German codes and could track the whereabouts of submarines, particularly the deadly U-20. They knew that six U-boats left base during the last week of April, and three ships sank in the same channel the week before the Lusitania. The admiralty had decided to open a safer northern channel to merchant shipping but hadn't directed the Lusitania to use it....

Larson explores curiosities and a long list of what ifs: If the Lusitania had not been late in sailing, if the fog had persisted longer, if the captain hadn't turned to starboard into the sub's path and if that one torpedo hadn't hit just in the right spot, the Lusitania might have arrived safely. An intriguing, entirely engrossing investigation into a legendary disaster."~Kirkus Reviews

Event Registration Online for Historian Erik Larson, with 'Dead wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania' powered by Eventbrite

from the publisher's website Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake. The Devil in the White City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. In this book the smoke, romance, and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before. Erik Larson’s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both. (timspalding)… (more)

If you are a member of this reading group, please stop by the bookstore to pick up your reserved copy of this title (and receive a 20% discount) For more information please contact Alden Graves, agraves@northshire.com.

September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning.

Description: The Rockville Library Book Discussion Group meets on the last Thursday of the month January through October. June's book is In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. Books for discussion can be picked up in the library.

Join us to discuss Thunderstruck by Erik Larson and talk about how we connect. At each session in this reading, viewing, and discussion series, in addition to discussing the book, we will watch and discuss an interview with the book's author and a short film about people who are "pushing the limits" in their everyday lives. The film on February 7 shows us Roxanne Swentzell, a woman of Native American descent who connects with her cultural history and the world around her through her work with clay. "Pushing the Limits" is a reading, viewing, and discussion program for adults in communities served by rural libraries, made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. (howe_library)… (more)